The Mysteries of the Koori Region
by FoxesAreMagical
Summary: The sixteen year old Vohr from the Koori region is asked to catch a many Pokémon as possible, to help with research. The Koori region was always devoid of any Pokémon, until a few years back. Vohr embarks on a journey to help professor Maple unravel the mysterious 'Pokémon Migration', to catch as many Pokémon as he can, and to beat the Koori League!
1. Chapter 1

**Ch1. A Look at Recent History**

_Travel log #1, Thursday, April 18th 2019_

Hello everyone, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Vohr Delohl, I'm sixteen years old, I live in Riverflow Town in the Koori region, my best friend is a Pokémon and I'm about to go on a journey.

If you're reading this, you probably know about Pokémon already. Of course, that's a pretty unprofessional assumption, so allow me to explain briefly anyway. The world is filled with creatures known as 'Pokémon' and they're fascinating. They are very intelligent, they can fight with what looks like magical powers, they make great friends and people raise them and measure them up to each other in special battles, called Pokémon battles. Don't worry though, Pokémon generally like to fight, as long as the fight is fair enough or when they have complete trust in their trainers, anyway.

At first glance some Pokémon look like normal animals, but they are distinctly different.

My upcoming journey is actually all about Pokémon. You see, the professor who lives close by, asked me to go out with my own Pokémon and to learn as much about the Pokémon in the Koori region as possible. This coincides with some of my own long-term goals, so obviously, this is a great opportunity for me.

The reason the professor asked this of me, is a bit different in a way from what you may have heard before. It is often said that the world is full of Pokémon and in other regions, it's normal for kids much younger than myself to be given their first Pokémon by a professor and to start traveling. However, until sixteen years ago, people would be lying if they said Pokémon lived all over the world. There never was a single sighting of a Pokémon in the Koori region until then. The Koori region is most famous for its enormous ice cave system in the north of the region. The very first Pokémon sighting in the region, was an ice type from the Alola region, a six-tailed fox referred to as 'Vulpix'. She was also given the name 'Koori' by the first professor on the scene. She appeared in the ice cave system and since the Alola region is so far away from here, it was at first believed that someone must have released her in there. However, shortly after Koori the Vulpix was first seen, a few other ice type Pokémon started appearing in the cave.

In the years that followed, more and more Pokémon started to migrate into the Koori region, starting with the flying types, then the bug types and water types. After around a decade had passed, all Pokémon native to seven other regions, aside from most of the Pokémon referred to as 'legendary Pokémon', had been sighted in Koori. The little Vulpix Koori soon became the symbol of the region and ever since all that started happening sixteen years ago, professors from all over the world have taken an interest in our region; all asking the question: 'Why did all these Pokémon suddenly migrate here?'.

Soon enough, another phenomenon started occurring - ice type Pokémon started appearing in the ice caves, but these Pokémon weren't originally known as ice types. For example, a caterpillar-like Pokémon called Caterpie, is known as a bug type, not an ice type. However, about seven years ago, an ice-colored, almost see-through Caterpie was found. A few more strange sightings have followed since.

Professor Maple has always lived in Riverflow Town and he has been investigating the Pokémon Migration ever since it first started happening. Now, he wants me to help with the research - if I can catch as many Pokémon as possible, he can compare the Pokémon living in Koori to the other regions' counterparts. Perhaps that will bring us closer to the answers we seek.

As for me, I have always dreamed of winning a big Pokémon tournament, like a Pokémon League. I have also always wanted to find and catch as many Pokémon as humanly possible, I've always wanted to travel _and_ I'm an aspiring writer. Through this request of professor Maple, I can combine all of these dreams. I can write about my adventures and about the Pokémon I encounter. I can travel through the entire region, maybe even to other regions, I can catch and train and become friends with Pokémon and once I become good enough, I can even try to enter the Koori League, of which there have been only three editions so far.

And which Pokémon am I starting out with? Angel, my sweet little Eevee. I met her a little over a year ago; I was walking along the river path, when I saw the poor thing half hidden in a bush, shivering. When I got closer, I noticed that she was bleeding and I quickly picked her up and rushed to the professor. We have no specialized hospital for Pokémon, a Pokémon Center, in our small town, so the only place I knew I could take her was to the professor. The Eevee was terrified, but soon after her treatment she got used to being around humans and she started following me around wherever I went. Watching our forming bond, professor Maple gave me a Pokéball and instructed me to catch and name the Eevee. Angel didn't need to be caught, though, she entered the ball willingly, as she was clearly happy to be called my Pokémon. It was the sweetest thing I had ever seen.

I see it is almost time to go already. Professor Maple will meet me at the edge of town in about half an hour. I'd better check if I have everything, including the Pokédex and ten Pokéballs he has already provided me with. I guess this concludes my first 'travel log', even though I have not even left the town yet. At any rate, I hope you will stick with me throughout my journey. I'm excited. Please root for me!


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch2. The First Encounter**

_Travel log #2, Thursday, April 18th 2019_

Hello again everyone. Vohr here.

It's evening by now and well, I can say I have had quite the first day. Allow me to tell you all about it.

After I finished up my previous log entry, I said goodbye to my parents. They seemed to have mixed feelings: they are both proud of me and at the same time, they're sad because of my leaving. Of course, a journey all by myself, or at least with only Angel my side, will surely help with my personal growth. I know that that's what my father tells himself.

Once I was ready to go; backpack on me and everything, Angel happily plopped onto my head - I'm still impressed by how lightweight she is and by how well she can balance herself up there - and we left towards the edge of town. Professor Maple was already waiting for us when we got there. As we had already talked a lot about this before and since I had already received both the Pokédex and Pokéballs, there wasn't much more for us to say. The professor did ask me if I already knew where I was headed first and I told him that yes, I already had a plan. I had never been to Riveredge City, all the way down the river, so that is where I was going to start my journey. The professor simply laughed and told me that he wanted to suggest just that; it would take me about one and a half day on foot to get there, so it wasn't that far away, either.

We said our goodbyes, Angel and I went on our way and… with that, our long journey had finally begun. Not only was Riveredge our first stop because it was close, no my main reason to go there, is because I heard before that the first ever Koori Gym built is actually right in the center of that city. I have no idea about the kind of Gym it is, but I like surprises, so I'll find out.

The weather was good. It never was really very warm in Koori, actually I hear many visitors find it quite cold. But about 15 degrees Celsius, with a clear sky and a nice, warm sun, makes for good weather to me. Walking along the unpaved river path was a soothing thing I often did in my free time, especially when I needed to think. The soft breeze washing over me, the blue river surrounded by green shrubs and trees, the gentle sounds of the streaming river and the tiny little rocks shifting positions underneath my feet… it is the definition of tranquility.

Of course, I couldn't wait to meet my 'first' wild Pokémon. Angel has to be trained and I need to catch as many Pokémon as possible. However, it was very rare to spot any Pokémon this close to my hometown. According to the professor, it is way more common for Pokémon to go to the river to drink, a good few kilometers away from town. The wild Pokémon prefer to not run into too many humans - they are intelligent after all and are fully aware of the fact that they could be targeted for capture. Some Pokémon like the idea of being trained, others prefer to stay away from us, but most will warm up to us and become our friends, regardless.

A few hours after I had left town with Angel, I sat down by the side of the river for a short break and so that we could have some lunch. Angel jumped off my head with the grace of a ballerina and happily waited for me to take her food out of my bag.

"Vee vee!"; man that adorable voice gets me every time. I couldn't help but smile and pet her cute, fluffy head, before offering her the food. Something she did not seem to mind. Angel is very cuddly and loves to get petted and hugged.

Of course, it was once I had taken both our lunches out of my backpack, that a curious Pokémon suddenly appeared from out of nowhere, probably drawn in by the scent. I could not believe my eyes - nor the timing. A small grey, black and white bird, with his or her eyes fixated on Angel's food, steadily hopped over to us, little by little. I slowly took a small block of Pokémon food and put it on the ground in front of me. The Pokémon did not try to run away, but seemed to understand the invitation. It was still cautious, however, because there was always the possibility that I was setting a trap.

I quietly reached for my Pokédex, the device which can record my sightings, captures and hold all kinds of data about discovered Pokémon. I had never seen this Pokémon before, so I was rather curious about it. I clicked the button to open its retractable screen and pointed the sensor at the back of the device at the Pokémon, which was now within reach of the food, but instead was focused on the strange device in my hand. My heart pounded as I waited for the automated voice to start speaking; I really did not want to startle the little bird and scare it off. That would be a waste.

"_Starly, the Starling Pokémon from the Sinnoh region. Starly are commonly seen in large flocks, as they are weak on their own. Even so, their small wings can produce strong gusts of wind. Starly are most commonly seen near mountains and fields, where they hunt for insects. If flocks become too big, they will start to fight amongst each other. Their singing is often perceived as annoying._

_T__his particular Pokémon appears to be male."_

There were two things I was impressed by. The first thing was that this brave little Starly did not even flinch when the 'Dex started speaking. The second was that the device could even scan the Pokémon for its gender. That was useful; I would not have to take it to a Pokémon Center, or check myself, to find out.

As soon as I put the 'Dex away, the Starly started pecking at the little clump of food I had presented for it. I could not help but smile. Since Pokémon are intelligent beings, I decided I should ask if the Starly would mind to battle us. If we'd win, I would try to capture him, so that he would join us.

The Starly ignored me at first as it was eating, but after that, he jumped up and down, flew a few meters back from the direction where he had come from and faced us with a serious glint in eyes. I took that as a 'yes'.

I looked over at Angel, not even having to ask if she was ready. She nodded immediately and spoke with a serious tone of voice: "Eevu". We both got up and stood to face the Starly.

"Alright Starly,", I spoke up, "At the count of three, the battle will begin. Is that fine with you?".

The Starly did not move, but instead stared at us with even more intensity. This little solo birdy was quite brave, wasn't it? Of course, it had the advantage over Angel, with it being able to fly and all.

"One… Two… Three! Angel, use quick attack!" Right when I was finished counting, the Starly took to the skies, as expected, so I was hoping that the speed from a quick attack would be enough to launch Angel up into the air, high enough to hit the flying Pokémon. However, the problem was that Angel could not maneuver herself in the air as well as the one with wings could and so, she missed her attack. Angel safely landed on all four of her tiny legs, spun herself around and got ready to try again, when we both saw the Starly quickly speeding towards her, ready to use the peck attack.

"Wow, he's quick. Angel, dodge it!" Unfortunately, the Starly was too fast and he hit Angel's side. She did not seem to hurt much from the attack, so it luckily wasn't a direct hit.

"Now, Angel, run towards the path!". My Eevee did as I instructed and the wild Starly quickly followed; it did not want to give Angel any chances. A good tactic, I'll have to admit. But I had a good plan, too. As soon as Angel reached the path, I commanded her to use sand attack. She quickly spun herself around, using her tail to sweep against the tiny rocks and sand on the unpaved path. The sand and tiny rocks hit the Starly right in his face; however he seemed unfazed by the sand in his eyes and he flew on, only to get a direct hit in with peck this time. The rocks had only left a few small scratches.

"What? Uh… think… Quick, he's attacking again… Use baby doll eyes!". Angel cast aside her worries and showed Starly probably the most adorable face she had ever shown anyone, which clearly made the Starly hesitate for a moment; weakening the incoming attack.

"Now use quick attack again!". The wild Pokémon was close to my Eevee now; this should work! I just knew it!

And it actually did. Angel hit the Starly directly again, this time with her best physical attack. Starly fell to the ground and I instructed Angel to hit it again, twice more. I then quickly grabbed a Pokéball, clicked the button to enlarge it and threw it at the wild Starly. The ball hit the bird with a soft 'bup' and bounced off before opening. The Starly turned red and transparent and got sucked inside the ball, which then proceeded to close and fall to the ground. Angel and I stared intensely at the ball, as it wiggled once, twice… and then opened up again, allowing the Starly to escape. The ball even flew off so far, that it landed in the river. One ball down without a capture. I had not expected our first battle on this journey of ours to be this intense.

The Starly reappeared and I quickly instructed Angel to attack again. She hit the bird once again and I took the chance to throw another ball at it. However… the result ended up being the same: the ball wobbled twice and then the Starly escaped. Only this time, the ball did not fall into the river and the Starly immediately flew up… and left.

"He… he left. Angel… tell me it's not true.", I said, both disappointed and shocked.

"Vee…".

"I see. You're surprised, too, then. Well… uh… good to know that I'm not the only one."

Not really sure of how to deal with the situation, I awkwardly sat down again, so that Angel and I could finish our lunch. I even forgot about the Pokéball I had last used, but Angel was thoughtful enough to bring it back to me. We finished our lunches and then continued on our journey; both feeling a little sad. I had really been hoping that we'd get a new friend.

Thinking about it now, though, I see it as a good experience. I think Angel and I both grew from experiencing this. Wild Pokémon have no obligation to stick around if they don't want to, so if that Starly suddenly changed its mind, then so be it. And we should expect similar things to happen in the future. Catching many Pokémon is surely going to be very difficult. I have a newfound respect for all the trainers around the world. They are amazing.

With that, I will end this second entry. I hope that you enjoyed reading this and professor, I hope that you were able to learn something from this, too. I don't think you did, but… in that case, I at least won't have disappointed you too much.

Good night!

\- Vohr

_**Behind the scenes of chapter 1**_

Hello, dear readers. I am planning to provide a 'Behind the scenes' section after every chapter. In these sections, I shall explain some of my choices and might provide you with some trivia. Also, randomization will play a big part in the chapters to come. I will use randomizers for wild encounters, battles… you name it. The direction this will go in is a surprise to all of us. That makes it more challenging to write, but also quite interesting.

This is a story I have been wanting to write for a long time. I have multiple projects going on, both stories I'm writing and other things (like a game I'm trying to create), so I have never really had much time for it. However, I'm finally putting myself to do this, as I want to improve and because I simply want to finally write about Pokémon, but in my own setting. Also, I've been wanting to try short stories, or at least something episodic for a while. Normally I write a long story and let someone read it all at once. This is clearly different, I mean, so far there is just one Itty bitty chapter. It's a new style of writing for me, so I hope it's good enough.

Feel free to give me tips, to make small requests and to go grammar-crazy on me. I am not a native English speaker and I really want my English to be the best it can be. All help is appreciated.

Now, onto the few choices I made in chapter one: the new region and its name are really just an idea which suddenly popped into my head. Koori is the Japanese word for ice, so that is how that ties into the story. I decided to use 'Vohr Delohl' as my protagonist, as this is a randomly altered spelling of 'Voor de lol', which means 'For fun'; you should always have fun when writing!

I chose professor Maple, as for as far as I know it's currently not an existing professor yet and some maple trees can resist relatively cold temperatures, so that ties into the name Koori, as well.

Alolan Vulpix is simply a Pokémon I absolutely adore - my favorites are basically the Eevee, Vulpix and Fennekin lines, although I have many more Pokémon I like, too.

I chose Eevee as my starter, as it's a pretty neutral Pokémon to start out with and because her evolution is an interesting mystery for now. I will likely randomize the evolution.

I used a random name picker to decide between Eva and Angel, which are my two most-used names for Eevee. Angel was the winner.

I really hope that you had fun reading this and that you will read upcoming chapters. Have a nice day!

\- FoxesAreMagical

_**Behind the scenes of chapter 2**_

Hello dear reader, FoxesAreMagical again.

Before I started with this second chapter, I had to establish some rules for myself. You can see which rules I mean, right below this:

I cannot start randomizing things, until I get to the point where it is needed. For example, I knew there was going to be an encounter, but I could not use the randomizer to see which Pokémon that would be, as I would be able to plan my chapter accordingly and that is not what I want.

I need to determine the conditions of randomization and whenever I can, use 6 options - this as a reference to Pokémon teams. Although, fewer than 6 options are allowed, if using 6 would make something rather ridiculous.

I cannot change my mind and change the outcome of a randomized event.

Weak Pokémon have a 50% chance of being captured with a regular Pokéball, during the scene. So, not every ball gives us a 50% chance, but either the capture can succeed, or not, as the scene progresses. The chances of either outcome are the same.

_Randomized events and choices._

I used a coin to determine whether or not the protagonist had ever been to Wateredge City. Heads was yes, tails was no. I got tails. I actually wanted to name the city Wateredge Seaty, as I am imagining it to be at both the edge of the river, as well as the sea, at the point where the river flows into the sea. However, 'Seaty' sounded rather weird, so I refrained.

As for the Starly, this is how it was chosen and why it ended up fleeing the way it did:

First I used a random Pokémon generator online to generate 6 base Pokémon. My established conditions were: it needs to be a base/stage 1 Pokémon and it must be able to evolve.

The 6 generated base Pokémon were: Rayquaza, Snover, Rufflet, Pichu,Taillow and Chatot. Rayquaza and Chatot cannot evolve, so 2 new Pokémon had to be generated. These ended up being Wurmple and Burmy… but Burmy cannot walk around. I had the scene set up so that a Pokémon was approaching us, so I could not use Burmy. Next time though, I might rewrite the restrictive part of the story, to allow a Pokémon like Burmy to be chosen. This time, I opted to generate a new one, which took a few attempts. I got: Groudon, Minun, Durant and then finally Starly, a Pokémon I could use. I then put the 6 Pokémon Snover, Rufflet, Pichu, Taillow, Wurmple and Starly into a name randomizer and that ended up generating Starly… a Pokémon that had been very close to not even making it into the selection. But, that is randomization for you.

Heads (female) and tails (male) was used to determine the gender. The coin landed on tails again.

You might be curious about my order of favorite Pokémon here. So here they are, from most to least favorite. The more '' you see, the wider the gap between two Pokémon:

Groudon Pichu Rayquaza Taillow Minun Wurmple Rufflet Chatot Starly Durant Snover Burmy.

Next, I randomized what would happen with the Starly. The 6 options were: Wild runs away, Wild beats me, Wild receives backup and 3x Catch chance. It landed on one of the 'Catch chance' entries.

Only after the protagonist had thrown the Pokéball, did I randomize what happened. The options were: Escape after 1 try, Escape after 2 tries, Escape after 3 tries, Success in 1 try, Success in 2 tries and Success in 3 tries. It landed on 'Escape after 2 tries'. I'm thinking that perhaps I should change the options for non-success to not all involve escape, but we'll see.

Lastly, I have decided to mostly use canon attacks from the games, but to also give Pokémon an actual memory and access to attacks that just make sense. Starly using peck? Not possible in-game, but it makes sense. Angel's last learned attack at what I believe her level is right now, according to her level up table, is quick attack. That also means she remembers all the attacks that came before that. 'Real' Pokémon should not be limited to knowing 4 attacks; that is purely used for gameplay purposes.

For what is to come, I'm already thinking about the Gyms. Obviously, they will play a big part in the story. I have a few ideas for them.

1: I can choose a random type every time I get to a gym; from normal to steel to fairy, it would all be possible.

2: Since there are 8 Gyms and there are currently 8 evolutions of Eevee and I started with Eevee, it might be nice to only include these 8 types and to randomize the Gyms based on the Eeveelutions - the dark-type Gym would have a guaranteed Umbreon, plus some other randomized Pokémon, for example.

3: I could take idea 2 a step further and say that the ice-type Gym has a guaranteed Alolan Vulpix, Alolan Ninetales and Glaceon, while the fire-type Gym has the fire-type counterparts of those guaranteed.

I'm not sure yet which of those I will choose; I'm leaning towards 3, but perhaps that wouldn't be surprising enough anymore and thus be boring? On the other hand, since I love all these Pokémon, it would be a crying shame to not have them all in my story. Breeding is not likely going to happen and I don't think randomization will be kind enough to have me encounter and capture enough Eevees or Eeveelutions to complete my own set.

Speaking of future encounters, I will have to scale the capture rate a little bit - what are the chances with special balls, evolved Pokémon, etc.? Those are things I have not completely figured out yet, though of course I already roughly know how I'm going to do it.

That was all for now, I hope you had fun!

\- FoxesAreMagical

_**Extra writer's notes**_

I'm sorry if it's strange that the 'behind the scenes of chapter 1' part moved below chapter 2. As far as I understand though, this site has a rule in place that notes must come at the end. If that's true I will (have to) move all notes to the latest chapter every time. Please tell me if I got this wrong; I would immediately match the right notes with the right chapters again. I would love to add 'behind the scenes' bits as extra chapters so that those who aren't interested won't need to see them, but I believe that, too, isn't allowed. I'm pretty new here and I'm just trying to follow the rules. If I get something wrong, please tell me about it.

At any rate, thank you for reading!


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